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1958: BMW Isetta drivers buy Imperial whiskey by the case

70 percent grain neutral spirits, being hauled by a 298cc engine.

July 23, 2018

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Back in 1958, when this publication was just getting started, seriously price-conscious car shoppers went for the BMW Isetta bubble car. The Isetta boasted -- if that's the right word -- a single-cylinder, 0.3-liter engine rated at 13 hp and featured a nose that hinged out of the way to allow entry and egress. List price was $1,048, or about $9,200 in 2018 dollars, making the Isetta $297 cheaper than the miserably underpowered Renault Dauphine and a whopping $497 less than the massive and powerful (by comparison) 1958 Volkswagen Beetle.

The marketers for Imperial Whiskey (then made by the Hiram Walker company) seem to have felt that the kind of car shopper who would opt for the Isetta would be the sort of whiskey shopper who would purchase a very affordable blend of 70 percent grain neutral spirits (i.e, ethanol and water) and 30 percent whiskey… a case at a time. The good news is that the Isetta's luggage rack had room for a case of the stuff, though it appears that no tie-downs were needed even with such fragile Isetta cargo.